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Message: [QUOTE="JeremyCuse, post: 927981, member: 43"] [B]Final Thoughts/Prediction(s)[/B] Not going out on a limb when I say that if people can stay healthy this team should be on the cusp of grabbing a 1 or 2 seed in the tourney and making a return trip to Memorial day. Its hard to put that much pressure on a program before they have played 1 second of the regular season but anything but a final four appearance will be a dissapoint based on the amount of talent we have assembled (barring massive injuries). Last year I thought Syracuse needed to take care of business against the "lesser opponents" to ensure a high NCAA bid and due to the fact we appeared to be underdodgs against UVA, Cornell, and JHU. Instead we lost to Hobart, Nova, and Albany but ended up sweeping UVA, Cornell, JHU and ND as well as the BE tourney. This year with the difficulty of our schedule I think its clear we could easily drop a couple games especially when your playign the likes of Duke, UNC, UVA, Albany, etc. Based on that here are my must win games or at least games I feel Syracuse should/need to win: 2/16 Albany - Revenge game but more important is only the second game of the year and last before we hit conference schedule. A win here would go along way to cover any hiccups down the road against a team we should win (see hobart/Nova last year. It will also quiet down the Thompson fan bandwagon that feels Syracuse dropped the ball when they stopped recruiting Myles and Lyle. 2/22/14 Maryland - The terps lost a ton offensively to graduation and while there D is solid and they brought in probably a handful of stud frosh its going to take there O a little bit to get in sync. This is a game Syracuse needs to win with it being the last home game for a month and its inaugral ACC game. The win will also likely look better and better as the season progresses and those Maryland Frosh start to get acclamated to Div1. 03/8/14 St. Johns - Odd game being played in Atlanta with no television coverage at this point. With big games against Duke, UNC, JHU and others on the horizon after this game, its imperative Syracuse takes care of business here to again give themselves breathing if they drop a few against some of the big guns. 03/23 Duke - After a lot of success against Duke the few times we matched up the past decade we have now lost the last two against Danowski. We need to right the ship here. Fowler will be a pain in the ass for sure but Duke lost nearly all of there midfield and a good amount of O firepower. If we can keep faceoffs even remotely respectable I like our chances here. This is also a Cache game for NCAA tourney purposes. 04/08/ and 04/19 - Cornell and Hobart - I put these two together because there similar in where both teams are at this year. Cornell lost a ton from last years team and has little depth, should be a down year for the Big Red. This is a game Syracuse should be able to impose its will and hopefully win comfortably. Cornell still has talent but there breaking in a new staff and replacing a lot, Syracuse should roll here if I am being honest. Ditto for Hobart. I wasn't completely shocked we lost last year to them as we had been playing with fire 3 out of the four years prior to that by real close games despite the talent discrempancy. Last year we twice had 3 goal leads with the ball and we let Hobart come back. Credit to Hobart for the W but lets be honest the Syracuse game is there National Championship and they simply wanted it more. That being said dont expect a repeat this year. Hobart is replacing its coach most of its D and there guy at the X. Early results aren't great either they were dominated by Rutgers for most of there scrimmage last Saturday and are as bad at the X as we are. I also expect Desko to try and pour it on if he can, he doesn't like losing to Hobart. All in all it should be another great year of Lacrosse on the hill. The home schedule could be better and less spaced out but it is what it is. Looking forward to seeing what we do at the X and if Galasso can ever get on the field. Not counting the ACC tourney im shooting for 11-2. Again to me the key is going to be Syracuse taking care of business against teams it should beat, with the ACC as tough as it consecutive losses can snowball like they did to UVA last year and before you know it you have 4-6 losses and in desperation mode for the tourney. Would really like to see Syracuse at 5-1 after the first six games. [/QUOTE]

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